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Shane van Gisbergen signs with McLaren GT for 2015

2014 V8 Supercars runner-up, Shane van Gisbergen has signed with McLaren GT for 2015 and will compete in the Blancpain Endurance Series this year.

SHANE VAN GISBERGEN has signed with McLaren GT for 2015 and will compete at a  number of international GT endurance events outside of his 2015 V8 Supercars commitments this year. It’s been a big week for van Gisbergen who has announced he’ll leave TEKNO Autosports at the end of this season to join Triple Eight Racing for 2016.

Andrew Kirkaldy, Managing Director, McLaren GT said: “It is great to have Shane on board for the 2015 season. He showed some real talent when he raced the 12C GT3 in the Australian GT championship last year, and was the quickest man on track at Bathurst last year when I raced alongside him, and we narrowly missed out on a podium in one of the closest finishes in the race’s history. He has shown himself to be a great talent in Australia, and we are confident that he can recreate that success in Europe.”

While McLaren GT hasn’t announced van Gisbergen’s schedule it’s likely he’ll race in four of the five Blancpain Endurance Series races, with the first round at Monza (Italy) in April. The V8 Supercars calendar clashes with one of the races in France, and so it’s likely van Gisbergen will sit out that round of the international series.

Prior to announcing his end of season move to Triple Eight Racing and his international commitments with McLaren GT, van Gisbergen told V8 Supercars that he was committed to winning the V8 Supercars championship (he finished runner-up in 2014). 

“My goal in life [is] to race V8 Supercars and win it,” van Gisbergen said.

“I’d never go overseas full-time before I won the Aussie Championship… I’d rather finish that goal.

“But doing all the [international] races I think helps me as a driver, so I’m still trying to push to do as many races as I can.”

But what about next year (2016) when van Gisbergen is with Triple Eight? Well, team owner Roland Dane has said, within limits, he’s happy for the 25-year-old New Zealander to continue with his international racing.

“I am very comfortable with that. There are clearly boundaries; he won’t be driving a car with a different energy drink brand on it. But I am very comfortable because he is very comfortable driving other cars … I am happy to have him doing that as and when it fits into the schedule and makes commercial sense. I am very happy, I like his approach and in many ways he is like a 15-year younger version of Craig Lowndes.”


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Isaac Bober

Isaac Bober